L. Pipkov is a composer who generates influences (D. Shostakovich), the leader of the Bulgarian school of composers, which has reached the level of modern European professionalism and received international recognition. Pipkov grew up among the democratic progressive intelligentsia, in the family of a musician. His father Panayot Pipkov was one of the pioneers of professional Bulgarian music, a songwriter who was widely circulated in revolutionary circles. From his father, the future musician inherited
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L. Pipkov is a composer who generates influences (D. Shostakovich), the leader of the Bulgarian school of composers, which has reached the level of modern European professionalism and received international recognition. Pipkov grew up among the democratic progressive intelligentsia, in the family of a musician. His father Panayot Pipkov was one of the pioneers of professional Bulgarian music, a songwriter who was widely circulated in revolutionary circles. From his father, the future musician inherited his gift and civic ideals - at the age of 20 he joined the revolutionary movement, participated in the activities of the then underground Communist Party, risking freedom and sometimes life. In the mid-20s, Pipkov was a student of the State Music Academy in Sofia. He performs as a pianist, and his first compositional experiments also lie in the field of piano creativity. The outstandingly gifted young man receives a scholarship to study in Paris - here in 1926-32 he studies at the Ecole Normale under the famous composer Paul Duke and the teacher Nadia Boulanger. Pipkov quickly grows into a serious artist, as evidenced by his first mature opuses: Concerto for wind, percussion and piano (1931), String Quartet (1928, it was the first Bulgarian quartet), processing folk songs. But the main achievement of these years is the opera The Nine Brothers of Yana, begun in 1929, and completed after returning to their homeland in 1932. Pipkov created the first classical Bulgarian opera, recognized by music historians as an outstanding composition, which marked a turning point in the history of Bulgarian musical theater. The modern social idea in those days, the composer could realize only allegorically, on the material of folk legends, referring the action to the distant XIV century. The legendary poetic material reveals the theme of the struggle between good and evil, embodied primarily in the conflict between two brothers - the evil envious George Groznik and the talented artist Angel, who was ruined by him, with a bright soul. The personal drama develops into a national tragedy, for it unfolds in the depths of the popular mass, suffering from foreign oppressors, from the plague that has befallen the country. Drawing the tragic events of ancient times, Pipkov, however, refers to the tragedy of his time. The opera was created in the fresh footsteps of the September anti-fascist uprising of 1923, which shocked the whole country, and was brutally suppressed by the authorities – that was the time when many of the best people of the country died, when a Bulgarian killed a Bulgarian. Its malignancy was understood immediately after its premiere in 1937 - then official critics accused Pipkov of "communist propaganda", wrote that the opera was seen as a protest "against today's social system", that is, against the monarchical fascist regime. Many years later, the composer admitted that it was so, that he sought in the opera "to reveal the truth of life, full of wisdom, experience and faith in the future, the faith that is necessary to fight fascism." "The Nine Brothers of Yana" is a symphonized musical drama, with an acutely expressive language, full of juicy contrasts, with dynamic mass scenes in which the impact of the scenes of "Boris Godunov" by M. Mussorgsky is traced. The music of the opera, as well as all the works of Pipkov, is distinguished by a bright national characteristic. Among the works with which Pipkov responded to the heroism and tragedy of the September anti-fascist uprising are the cantata “Wedding” (1935), which he called a revolutionary symphony for choir and orchestra, and the vocal ballad “The Horsemen” (1929). Both of them are written on the article of the great poet N. Furnadzhiev. Returning from Paris, Pipkov joined the musical and social life of his homeland. In 1932, together with his colleagues and peers P. Vladigerov, P. Steinov, V. Stoyanov and others, he became one of the founders of the society "Contemporary Music", which united everything progressive in the domestic school of composers, which experienced its first high rise. Pipkov also acts as a music critic and publicist. In the program article “On Bulgarian Musical Style”, he argues that compositional creativity should develop in the mainstream of socially active art and that its basis is loyalty to the national idea. Social significance is characteristic of most major works of the master. In 1940 he created the First Symphony, the first truly national symphony in Bulgaria, which became a major conceptual symphony. It reflects the spiritual atmosphere of the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of World War II. The concept of the symphony - a nationally peculiar version of the well-known idea "through the struggle to victory" - is embodied on the basis of Bulgarian imagery and stylistics, based on the laws of folklore. Pipkov's second opera "Momchil" (the name of the national hero, the leader of the haiduks) was created in 1939-43, completed in 1948. It reflected the patriotic mood and democratic upsurge in Bulgarian society at the turn of the 40s. This is a folk musical drama, with a brightly written, multifaceted image of the people. An important place is occupied by the heroic figurative sphere, the language of mass genres is used, in particular, the revolutionary march song - it organically combines with the original peasant folklore origins. Preserved characteristic of Pipkov skill playwright-symphonist and deep national soil style. The opera, first shown in 1948 at the Sofia Theatre, was the first sign of a new stage in the development of Bulgarian musical culture, the stage that came after the revolution of September 9, 1944 and the country’s entry into the path of socialist development. A democrat composer, a communist with a large public temperament, Pipkov is engaged in raucous activity. He was the first director of the revived Sofia Opera (1944-48), the first secretary of the opera established in 1947. Union of Bulgarian Composers (194757) Since 1948 he has been a professor at the Bulgarian State Conservatory. During this period in the work of Pipkov with special force affirms the modern theme. It is especially vividly revealed by the opera Antigone-43 (1963), which is still the best Bulgarian opera and one of the most significant operas on the modern plot in European music, and the oratorio On Our Time (1959). The sensitive artist raised his voice here against the war - not the one that has passed, but the one that threatens people again. The richness of the psychological content of the oratorio determines the courage and sharpness of contrasts, the dynamics of switching - from the intimate lyrics of the letters of a soldier to a beloved to the cruel picture of universal destruction as a result of an atomic strike, to the tragic image of dead children, bloody birds. Sometimes the oratorio acquires the theatrical power of influence. The young heroine of the opera "Antigone-43" - a schoolgirl Anna, as once Antigone, enters into a heroic duel with the authorities. From the unequal struggle Anna-Antigone emerges victorious, although she gets this moral victory at the cost of life. The music of the opera is distinguished by severe restrained force, originality, subtlety of the psychological development of vocal parts, in which the arious-declarative style dominates. The dramaturgy is acutely conflicting, the tense dynamism of scenes and duels characteristic of musical drama and brief, as a spring, tense orchestral interludes, are opposed by epic choral interludes - this is like the voice of the people, with its philosophical reflections and ethical assessments of what is happening. In the late 60s - early 70s, a new stage in Pipkov's work is planned: from heroic and tragic concepts of civil sound, there is an ever-greater turn to lyrical, psychological, philosophical and ethical problems, special intellectual refinement of lyrics. The most significant works of these years are Five Songs on the St. of Foreign Poets (1964) for bass, soprano and chamber orchestra, Concerto for clarinet with chamber orchestra and the Third Quartet with litavrs (1966), lyrical and meditative two-part Fourth Symphony for string orchestra (1970), choral chamber cycle on M. Tsvetaeva's St. Muffled Songs (1972), cycles of plays for piano. In the stylistics of Pipkov’s later works, there is a noticeable renewal of expressive potential, enrichment with the latest means. The composer has come a long way. At every turn of his creative evolution, he solved new and relevant problems for the entire national school, paving its way into the future.